Highway High Jinks

The Golden Gate Bridge is an ironic American structure. It was finished in just four years and came in $1.3 million under budget. Earlier this month, California Senator Dianne Feinstein acknowledged that could not happen today: “…it would take a hundred years to do it with all the permits we need.” It was a rare moment of candor from a California Democrat, acknowledging environmental and labor regulations make it hard to build things in America.

She actually sounded a lot like Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels – a Republican – who made a similar point at The Heritage Foundation in September. According to Mr. Daniels, Indiana “can build [infrastructure projects] in at least a third less time and sometimes half the money when we do it ourselves.” He also noted that Indiana could build its own bike trails for just $250,000 per mile, whereas it costs $1,000,000 per mile when federal money is involved because of all the accompanying red tape.

If lawmakers are looking for bipartisanship, they should start right here, where there is an actual agreement. Unfortunately, far too many in Washington are part of the Establishment and have no desire to tackle the regulatory hurdles and labor rules that increase costs, delay timelines and destroy jobs.

Just look at the stunt that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled last month. He forced a political show vote on $60 billion in stimulus-style infrastructure spending. We’ve been down this road before, and we all remember the taxpayer-funded highway signs: this nightmarish traffic jam was brought to you by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of Stimulus 1.0, every single Republican Senator voted against Reid’s political gimmick. Instead, they proposed a 2-year reauthorization of the highway bill that would have gotten at some of the real hurdles toward building roads and producing necessary raw materials, like concrete. Aside from their inability to get funding to appropriate levels in the proposal, it was a good start.

And to their credit, House Republicans were thinking even bigger things earlier this year. In the budget put forth by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), funding would have stayed in line with revenues coming into the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), which is paid for by federal gasoline taxes. The message was clear: no more transportation bailouts.

Dan Holler is the Communications Director for Heritage Action for America. Previously, he held numerous positions at The Heritage Foundation, most recently he was the Senate Relations Deputy. A Maryland native, he is a graduate of Washington College.